Duane McRuer
Exactly half of the 22 participants were DPS list finishers! In order of finishing the list they were: Andrew Smatko, Dick Akawie, Steve Smith, Roy and Barbara Magnuson, Shirley Akawie, Bernie, Lu, and Jon Petitjean, Duane McRuer, and Jack Grams. Most of the other 11 were close to finishing as well, so this was a very experienced group.
It snowed most of the day Saturday, so we spent the afternoon milling around the Zion visitors center. Sunday we again met at the roadhead, which is 17 miles north of Virgin on the paved road to Kolob Reservoir. A jeep road leaves the pavement at a hairpin turn just northeast of Pine Valley Peak, where a sign reads “Wildcat Canyon Trai1...” From here we followed the jeep road for about a mile, to where another jeep road branches to the right. We took this right branch souteast to the end, then dropped down between the two Northgate Peaks, and on to the flat northeast saddle at 6850 feet on NGA.
From this easy saddle, the fourth class route goes straight up and then contours to the left. We placed 5 fixed ropes, which were required mainly because the sandstone was wet and also quite fragile because of the moisture.
We arrived back at the cars in light snow, 5 hours and 40 minutes after we started. North and South Guardian Angel are surely among our premier peaks and worth climbing again!
Jim
